Paperback: 308 pages Publisher: iUniverse (May 24, 2010) ISBN-10: 1450225039 ISBN-13: 978-1450225038 reviewed by Jody Rakis The novel The Third Testament is the story of one man, Fred Sankt, living a good life, remembering his beloved wife, who has died of Melanoma. He has a daughter , Ellen, that he is very close to and […]

I hope that all of my readers in the United States had a very happy Thanksgiving. Filled up on turkey and pumpkin pie, it’s all too easy to slide right into the Christmas season, while forgetting all about Advent. But that would be a mistake. As my friend Fr. John P. Mack, Jr., wrote a few days ago, “If you would like to keep Christ in Christmas, keep Advent in Advent.”

The links in this newsletter will help you take Father Mack’s advice. You can refer back to it throughout Advent, and forward it to your Catholic friends and relatives. And be sure to check the About.com Catholicism GuideSite every day during Advent for more Advent devotions and practices.

Advent is long this year–27 days (the longest it can be is 28)–and the Church packs a number of important feasts, including one Holy Day of Obligation, into that short span of time. Check out this listing of the major feasts, and consider incorporating their celebration into your preparations for Christmas.

One of the most popular Catholic Advent customs is the Advent wreath. But did you know that it originated among German Lutherans? Learn more about the history and practice of the Advent wreath, and check out the links in the right column to find out how to make, bless, and light your own!

An excellent way to focus our thoughts and deepen our understanding of the meaning of Advent is to turn to the Bible. Through the Office of the Readings, the Church provides us each day with a reading from the Old Testament book of the Prophet Isaiah that helps us on our journey toward Christmas.

Reading for the First Monday of AdventIn Isaiah 1:21-27 and 2:1-5, the Prophet Isaiah continues to call Israel to account, and God reveals His plan to remake Israel, purifying her so that she will be the shining city on a hill, toward which men of all nations will turn. This remade Israel is the Church of the New Testament, and it is Christ’s coming that remakes Her.

The Bible is made up of dozens of books, but tradition has it that the first five books were dictated to Moses, by God. But could Moses have really written down the words that God spoke, including the Ten Commandments? The Bible says that millions of people witnessed this event–but what does archaeology say? Watch a free episode of the TV series THE NAKED ARCHAEOLOGIST by award-winning filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici. Watch free video.

A New York jury returned a verdict of guilty on 30 of 31 counts against 50-year-old Raphael Golb, son of University of Chicago Dead Sea Scroll scholar Norman Golb. Thus ended Raphael Golb’s three week trial in which he admitted to originating hundreds of emails and blogs, in some of which he used fake accounts to impersonate prominent scroll scholar Lawrence Schiffman of New York University. Late last week, Golb was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation. Explore coverage of the Golb trial in the Scholar’s Study, and let us know what you think in the Talkbacks. Read more.

Have a look at the right-hand column of our Web site, and you’ll find two new listings: What’s Brand New and What’s Most Popular. Let these quick links be your guide to the freshest and most popular articles, videos, news items and more on our award-winning Web site. Read more.

Check out the latest news in Biblical archaeology and related topics–updated daily

This week in the news, New York lawyer Raphael Golb was sentenced to six months in jail for impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Lawrence Schiffman on the Internet. Elsewhere in New York, sixth graders at the Sayville Middle School became apprentices to a master scribe and learned to write their names in Ugaritic cuneiform. A bathing pool that was likely part of a bathing house used by the tenth Roman Legion has been uncovered in excavations in Jerusalem. And geologists, archaeologists and anthropologists all stand to gain valuable scientific data contained in samples drilled from 1,640 feet below the seabed of the Dead Sea in Israel. Read more.

Books about Bible “mysteries” typically fall into two broad categories: those claiming with appropriate fanfare to have discovered some location or artifact described in the Bible; and others, based on more sober examination of evidence, showing the former claims to be inadequately supported by facts. Eric H. Cline’s From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible, is in the latter category. Professor Cline is a scholar with credentials in both ancient history and Near Eastern archaeology whose two previous books provided engaging accounts of the sweep of history through single pivotal locations–respectively Megiddo (Armageddon) and Jerusalem. Read more.

“A great success,” according to participants and scholars
Bible & Archaeology Fest XIII, held this past weekend in Atlanta, GA, was a great success according to both participants and scholars. Participants raved about the “phenomenal” lineup of scholars. Scholars reported that it was a pleasure to lecture at The Fest to an audience eager to hear about and discuss new findings in Biblical studies and archaeology. Everyone departed looking forward to meeting again for The Fest next November in San Francisco, CA. Mark your calendars now for the weekend before Thanksgiving 2011, and come join us!View photos from The Fest on our Facebook page!

Submit a captionWrite a caption for this cartoon! The author of the best caption will receive a BAS T-shirt, a Dead Sea Scroll mug and three complimentary subscriptions to give BAR to friends. Runners-up will receive a BAS T-shirt and two complimentary subscriptions. The deadline for captions is December 25, 2010. Read more.

Fra Angelico(c.1395 – February 18, 1455)was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having “a rare and perfect talent.” He was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and by Vasari as Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother Giovanni the Angelic One). All of his many paintings were of divine subjects, and he never altered or retouched them, because of his conviction his paintings were divinely inspired.He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ. It is averred he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion.

Katsushika Hokusai‘s (1760-1849) 36 Views of Mt. Fuji are legendary, of which this calendar contains thirteen. Born in Edo, Japan, Hokusai is one of the greatest masters of Japanese woodblock print and one of the greatest creative geniuses of all time. At age 75 Hokusai wrote: “From the age of five I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of fifty I produced a number of designs, yet of all I drew prior to the age of seventy there is truly nothing of great note. At the age of seventy-two I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fish and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at eighty I shall have made some progress, at ninety I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at one hundred I shall have become truly marvelous, and at one hundred and ten, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own. I only beg that others of sufficiently long life take care to note the truth of my words.”

It’s finally beginning to look and feel like November here in Northern Illinois—just in time for Thanksgiving. This is one of my favorite times of year, as we gather with loved ones and recall those who are no longer with us. And there’s something about cold, gray, windy days that makes the memories more bittersweet.

When we talk about “preparing for Thanksgiving,” we usually mean buying the turkey, cutting up the bread for stuffing, and baking a pecan or a pumpkin pie (or both). Even though Thanksgiving is a American national holiday that doesn’t exist in the Catholic calendar, we should still take this opportunity to express our thanks to God for all of the blessings He has bestowed on us. And proper thanksgiving, just like a proper Thanksgiving, requires some preparation.

For most people, exorcism inevitably calls to mind the interesting but flawed movie The Exorcist, but the American bishops are taking the phenomenon of demonic possession more seriously these days. In the Catholicism Forum, Karen posted a link to a New York Times article on a recent conference in Baltimore, to “prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand” for exorcisms, which has risen in recent years. What do you think? Is the rising interest in exorcism a passing fad, or does it reflect a growing need? Join the conversation in the forum, and check out these other popular discussions: